Pete Sampras Aces when on Matchpoint

I saw the thread about great matchpoints and I want to add something to that, but the videos are not on youtube and I have to put it together and upload something. But then it occurred to me how often Sampras hit an ace on matchpoint throughout his career. In the biggest matches, championship points in major finals, major semifinals, masters finals, etc. I put this video together of the ones I recall, I think you will enjoy it.

Thanks, good stuff. Sampras aces always seems to be more more beautiful than any other player aces. I would enjoy if somebody made a video of pure Sampras aces with no more than 1-2 seconds pauses between them.

Love Sampras' serve. What a beautiful motion and acceleration. His accuracy was unreal and it was the faithful weapon that could be called upon so many times. I wish Sampras was in this generation. Pete and Roger would have amazing matches. I also want to see Pete and Rafa matches as well, especially at AO, USO and Wimby in that order.

Out of interest, why do you feel the need to constantly denigrate Federer?

Your idol Pete enormously respects Roger, and Roger enormously respects Pete. They are two of the greatest champions of all time and both extremely classy.

I think you'd do well to try to emulate your idol and be a bit more classy.

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Federer classy ?? You talking about his crying at the 2009 Aus Open not allowing Nadal to celebrate his victory. Making excuses whenever he lost a match at a major, it is either his back or he wasn't himself or the other guy got lucky. Really classy guy.

Federer classy ?? You talking about his crying at the 2009 Aus Open not allowing Nadal to celebrate his victory. Making excuses whenever he lost a match at a major, it is either his back or he wasn't himself or the other guy got lucky. Really classy guy.

-A number of those were Championship points
-Poor Agassi, he was on the receiving end of a few
-Sampras sure likes taking his shirt off
-At least one of those were 2nd serves
-those German interviews were ackward
-Lol Courier, such a nice dude but I can understand his frustration after having blown a 2-0 set lead at the French to Sampras.

questions:
-No post match autographs at Wimbledon back then? When did that begin and why do they allow it now? Cater to growing popularity?
-Why isn't this in the Former Pro Player section?

I saw the thread about great matchpoints and I want to add something to that, but the videos are not on youtube and I have to put it together and upload something. But then it occurred to me how often Sampras hit an ace on matchpoint throughout his career. In the biggest matches, championship points in major finals, major semifinals, masters finals, etc. I put this video together of the ones I recall, I think you will enjoy it.

Yeah, good point. Fed hits way more aces on clutch points than Nole and Rafa just due to better serve. But I wouldn't say he is more clutch than them.

Of course you will be more clutch at things you do best. I bet that Rafa and Nole make many more clutch returns than Sampras.

Also, does the OP even have any data to prove Pete hits more aces on clutch points? Or is this just a feeling when you remember only aces but forget failures.

Like poker players who lose ten times, but remember only 1 time they won, so they actually delude them selves they are winning money.

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Not quite sure what you are trying to say? If you have a matchpoint and you miss the ace then its a failure, but then win the 2nd serve point after a rally anyway. Very confusing post indeed. Well, the only thing I can think you are trying to say is that Sampras could have lost a match after attempting to hit an ace on matchpoint? Or serving for the match? Well if that's what you mean then I can assure you that didn't happen too often, or more to the point hardly happened at all. Of course I don't have data but I also uploaded videos where Sampras hit 2nd aces, often in key moments against important players. So no delusions here because Sampras was clearly winning the money.

The reason he was able to do that was because he had a technical ability which hasn't been matched by others, the ability to combine slice and topspin at pace especially on the ad court, allowing him to swing the ball down the middle with disguise. I would like to see more players perfect this technique. A lot of people get excited about raw pace, but just like in cricket, it's disguise and pace which make the difference.

Anyway, as you can see if you watched the video that he did it in the biggest matches against the biggest players, we are not talking 3rd rd of the Japan Open and hits a lucky ace. On the video, the matches were:

Not quite sure what you are trying to say? If you have a matchpoint and you miss the ace then its a failure, but then win the 2nd serve point after a rally anyway. Very confusing post indeed. Well, the only thing I can think you are trying to say is that Sampras could have lost a match after attempting to hit an ace on matchpoint? Or serving for the match? Well if that's what you mean then I can assure you that didn't happen too often, or more to the point hardly happened at all. Of course I don't have data but I also uploaded videos where Sampras hit 2nd aces, often in key moments against important players. So no delusions here because Sampras was clearly winning the money.

The reason he was able to do that was because he had a technical ability which hasn't been matched by others, the ability to combine slice and topspin at pace especially on the ad court, allowing him to swing the ball down the middle with disguise. I would like to see more players perfect this technique. A lot of people get excited about raw pace, but just like in cricket, it's disguise and pace which make the difference.

Anyway, as you can see if you watched the video that he did it in the biggest matches against the biggest players, we are not talking 3rd rd of the Japan Open and hits a lucky ace. On the video, the matches were:

I wasn't suggesting you are wrong. Only if you based this on any stats or if you have a good enough sample size to prove that.

Also my second point was really the point previous poster was making. It's not mine, but it's valid. Even if we assume your premise is true, was Sampras hitting more aces because he was more clutch? Or simply because his serve was so great and he hit more aces all the time, not just in clutch points.
Obviously Karlovic will hit more aces on big points too.

Thanks, good stuff. Sampras aces always seems to be more more beautiful than any other player aces. I would enjoy if somebody made a video of pure Sampras aces with no more than 1-2 seconds pauses between them.

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good to hear you say this....everybody says, oh he's just serve (false!), and he's boring...and yet, I've always felt like his serve was a thing of beauty itself and provided entertainment

I wasn't suggesting you are wrong. Only if you based this on any stats or if you have a good enough sample size to prove that.

Also my second point was really the point previous poster was making. It's not mine, but it's valid. Even if we assume your premise is true, was Sampras hitting more aces because he was more clutch? Or simply because his serve was so great and he hit more aces all the time, not just in clutch points.
Obviously Karlovic will hit more aces on big points too.

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Oh no, seriously I am not interested in the who hits more aces debate, I saw there is another thread re Goran and Ivo. Yes I am more interested in pros hitting those beauties in the big moments. I loved how Marion Bartoli won Wimbledon last year with an ace.

The obvious is that neither Goran nor Ivo hit aces on mathcpoint in slam finals, because they never got into those positions to try it. But as I mentioned before, these aces in the video are not against a journeyman in the 3rd round of a tournament.

Oh no, seriously I am not interested in the who hits more aces debate, I saw there is another thread re Goran and Ivo. Yes I am more interested in pros hitting those beauties in the big moments. I loved how Marion Bartoli won Wimbledon last year with an ace.

The obvious is that neither Goran nor Ivo hit aces on mathcpoint in slam finals, because they never got into those positions to try it. But as I mentioned before, these aces in the video are not against a journeyman in the 3rd round of a tournament.

But I understand your point better now, thank you.

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That's good point. Actually this is the point I'm always making. That those ace stats are skewed because Karlovic doesn't play semis/finals often, so his opponents are mostly low tier. And this logic doesn't work. Also top champions don't try 100% early rounds and save energy for finals, so Sampras didn't go all out.

And that's why those statistics are very skewed comparing low tier vs high tier players. I actually agree with you.

Not quite sure what you are trying to say? If you have a matchpoint and you miss the ace then its a failure, but then win the 2nd serve point after a rally anyway. Very confusing post indeed. Well, the only thing I can think you are trying to say is that Sampras could have lost a match after attempting to hit an ace on matchpoint? Or serving for the match? Well if that's what you mean then I can assure you that didn't happen too often, or more to the point hardly happened at all. Of course I don't have data but I also uploaded videos where Sampras hit 2nd aces, often in key moments against important players. So no delusions here because Sampras was clearly winning the money.

The reason he was able to do that was because he had a technical ability which hasn't been matched by others, the ability to combine slice and topspin at pace especially on the ad court, allowing him to swing the ball down the middle with disguise. I would like to see more players perfect this technique. A lot of people get excited about raw pace, but just like in cricket, it's disguise and pace which make the difference.

Anyway, as you can see if you watched the video that he did it in the biggest matches against the biggest players, we are not talking 3rd rd of the Japan Open and hits a lucky ace. On the video, the matches were:

Not quite sure what you are trying to say? If you have a matchpoint and you miss the ace then its a failure, but then win the 2nd serve point after a rally anyway. Very confusing post indeed. Well, the only thing I can think you are trying to say is that Sampras could have lost a match after attempting to hit an ace on matchpoint? Or serving for the match? Well if that's what you mean then I can assure you that didn't happen too often, or more to the point hardly happened at all. Of course I don't have data but I also uploaded videos where Sampras hit 2nd aces, often in key moments against important players. So no delusions here because Sampras was clearly winning the money.

The reason he was able to do that was because he had a technical ability which hasn't been matched by others, the ability to combine slice and topspin at pace especially on the ad court, allowing him to swing the ball down the middle with disguise. I would like to see more players perfect this technique. A lot of people get excited about raw pace, but just like in cricket, it's disguise and pace which make the difference.

Anyway, as you can see if you watched the video that he did it in the biggest matches against the biggest players, we are not talking 3rd rd of the Japan Open and hits a lucky ace. On the video, the matches were: